


We made a wish and you came true

by Lalalaartje



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: A little bit of Angst if you squint, Fluff and Smut, M/M, Mpreg Harry, Pregnancy, Pregnant Harry, Slightly detailed depiction of labour and birth, YouTuber Harry, YouTuber Louis, thigh fucking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-21
Updated: 2016-06-21
Packaged: 2018-07-16 10:37:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7264606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lalalaartje/pseuds/Lalalaartje
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry and Louis met at a uni YouTuber-convention, and six years later, they have a chart in their office, listing the steps to follow before they can have a baby.<br/>One night, Louis comes home with news about the final step before they get the GO! </p>
<p>Or the one where Louis is overprotective, Harry is sometimes irrational and a health freak, and they get the best reward in the end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We made a wish and you came true

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gayficlets](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gayficlets/gifts).



> Hi gayficlets!  
> So, I was asked as a pinchhitter for this exchange, and while I was actually busy with some other fics, I couldn't resist saying yes. I loved your prompt so very, very much, and it gave me a lot to work with.
> 
> I hope I did alright with the YouTube-stuff, since I don't really hang about on YouTube very much, but I still tried! Also my first time writing thigh fucking :)  
> I hope this quells your need of cuteness, and doesn't feel too rushed.  
> It was an absolute pleasure writing this for you!
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks to Dan for putting up with my whining and making the lovely photocollage for this!

By now, it had become a bit of a ritual. Harry would come home from work, get his camera set up wherever he felt like sitting, and start on his video. When he was done filming, he edited it a bit and then uploaded it to YouTube while he went on to cook their dinner. Somewhere in between all that, Louis would come home. Sometimes he joined in on the vlog, sometimes Harry had to edit it out when he shouted hello from the front door, mostly followed by some profanity before he went to do something else somewhere else. 

It still seemed a bit surreal how popular his YouTube channel had gotten by now, having started when Niall of all people had nominated him for some challenge he couldn’t even remember. 6 years later, he was uploading twice a week, Mondays or Wednesdays alternating and Fridays, and had nearly 17000 followers. Crazy.

 

Today was Friday, so as soon as he got in, he took his camera and put it up in the kitchen for his weekly comfort-food blog, picking up the recipe he’d pinned to the fridge as well as all the supplies he needed for the brownies he was making.

Once he was sure he had everything he needed, he pulled his hair back into a bun, washed his hands and pressed the record-button.

“Hi everyone! So, as today is Friday, it’s comfort-food day, and for today I picked a recipe I found on Tumblr I know Louis is going to love. Louis is my boyfriend, for those of you who’re new here, and he loves sweets, so I already  _ know  _ I’ll have to fight him to be able to actually taste these brownies before he eats them all. Part of the reason I picked them is that they are called Slutty Cheesecake Brownie Bars, because I couldn’t just not try them out with a name like that. But enough talking, let’s get started!”

He worked on, explaining every step as he went and after half an hour he was ready to shove the baking tray into the oven. Since he’d come home early, he had plenty of time left before Louis would be home and he started editing the preparation-part already so he’d only have to add the part where he would taste the result.

 

“Oh. My. God. These are absolutely delicious, so good it even makes me forget how many calories are in it,” he told the camera, wiping a crumb away with his thumb and licking it off. “Trust me, you won’t regret trying these, and I promise I will make something less rich next week. Thanks again to Peas and Peonies for this wonderful recipe, enjoy your weekends and see you all on Monday for another challenge-video!”

 

Fifteen minutes later he had just pressed ‘upload’ when he heard the front door open. “Hi love,” Louis shouted while he kicked his shoes in the corner, too stubborn to use the shoes rack Harry had bought two weeks after they moved in because Louis always kicked his shoes in the corner of their entrance hall. 

“Hiiiii,” Harry yelled back. “What do you want for dinner? Haven’t started anything yet.”

“You,” Louis smirked from where he was leaning against the doorway of their spare bedroom. 

Harry rolled his eyes. 

“No, seriously, we’re going out for dinner, I have reservations at eight, because I’ve got the promotion and we’re celebrating,” Louis grinned, chuckling as Harry shot up from his chair and flung his arms around Louis’ neck.

“You got the promotion?” he checked again as he pulled back, eyes wide and lips parted in excitement.

“I did, yes, so after dinner, we’re going to start looking for three bedroom flats and even more importantly,” he waggled his eyebrows ridiculously but it the effect was kind of lost with the way he bit his lip and his voice already gone rough and low. “We’re going to start trying for a baby.”

Harry squealed loudly and squeezed his boyfriend even tighter, butterflies taking off in his stomach. They had been talking about having kids for what seemed like ages, or well, actually it had been ages.

 

Harry and Louis met when Harry just started uni, almost 5 years ago now, and on their third date, Harry had made it very clear that he wanted kids and he wanted them soon. Luckily for him, Louis was completely on board with that idea and didn’t run for the hills as soon as Harry told him he wanted to get pregnant as soon as he could.

 

Over the course of their five years together, their plan had become more specific and detailed, including certain requirements for their jobs and their housing. Louis getting the promotion he was in the running for was the last step before their chart gave them a solid “GO!” 

Yes, they had an actual chart hanging over their desk, stating their plan and their progress from A to Z, and Harry greatly enjoyed climbing up their desk to scratch out the last step, circling the “GO!” in bright red marker before climbing down again.

 

Louis grinned as they hugged again. “Come on, go and shower, there’s batter on your cheek,” he laughed, dragging his thumb through the smear on Harry’s face. “Hmmm, tastes good, think I’ll skip dessert to have some of this.”

“You’ll love it, it’s those Slutty Cheesecake Brownie Bars I’ve told you about on Wednesday,” Harry told him while he was already on his way to find clean clothes before hopping in the shower. 

 

Predictably, half the tray was already gone by the time Harry emerged from the shower, hair still damp and his shirt still unbuttoned. He rolled his eyes at Louis who just shut down the camera. He had his own YouTube channel that was originally intended for gaming video’s but now consisted mostly of reviews of Harry’s recipes and some harmless banter. Ever since they graduated, the time for gaming had become scarce and Louis much preferred spending his free time with his boyfriend over spending it behind his computer. Louis knew he’d lost a lot of followers over that, but he didn’t really care. After all, their YouTube channels had been the reason they met at a student group YouTube-convention, so it had already covered the most important part of his life. 

 

Louis got up from his chair and stopped Harry from buttoning his shirt further up than it already was. “Keep it like that, I like your moth,” he winked, referencing the tattoo Harry had on his diaphragm. “Shall we go? I thought maybe we could have drinks first since we’ve got  _ a lot _ to celebrate.”

“Yes! I want to have another one of those cocktails from the bar around the corner,” Harry enthused, immediately turning bashful and biting his lip when he realised something. “You know, now that I can still drink,” he added with a secretive smile.

Louis had to close his eyes at the idea of Harry not being able to drink because he was carrying their child, it was truly overwhelming. His voice was hoarse when he finally replied. “Yes, now that you still can.”

 

Their evening was wonderful, cocktails delicious as well as the food, like it always was in Niall’s restaurant. They talked about work, about what the promotion meant for Louis aside from a fatter paycheck at the end of the month, such as more responsibility, the freedom of sliding hours and getting to gloat because Nick now had to respond to him instead of being an annoying colleague. He loved it already. 

Of course it didn’t take long before the topic moved to babies. They’d always said they wanted three or four, but they were realistic enough to start off with one. The pregnancy wouldn’t be really easy to handle as it was already, with Harry having his job at the bakery where he was on his feet nearly all day. It also meant that he was allowed to go on pregnancy leave at 32 weeks though, and got to stay home until 6 months after the baby was born. A true luxury, Harry knew, especially when he looked at his sister Gemma who lived overseas and only had a meagre 15 weeks to stay with Leyla when she was born last year. 

Louis was sure they were going to have a boy, while Harry put his money on a girl, even if they weren’t pregnant yet. After spending an hour thinking of names and how they would decorate the nursery while sharing the couples’ dessert platter, they paid their check, said goodbye to Niall and started the walk home.

 

A couple hours later, they laid close together in their small bed, both loose, pliant and satisfied from the orgasms they had just experienced.

“Think I’m pregnant already?” Harry asked, making Louis snort. “Hey! I could be! I haven’t been on birth control for ages so a condom was the only thing keeping us from making babies.”

Louis smiled, pressed a kiss to Harry’s cheek as his free hand stroked his torso softly. “Still think it would be a bit of a miracle if you got pregnant on the first try, love,” he muttered. “But don’t worry, I don’t mind trying very often,” he winked, making Harry choke out a laugh. 

 

***

 

It was three weeks later, a Saturday morning mid-september when Harry was in the middle of editing the cards against humanity video he’d done with Niall the week before. Louis was still asleep, he’d had a long and tiring week, so Harry decided it would be good to let him sleep in for once. That had been before he started to feel sick though. He’d had a couple of close calls, dry heaving over the garbage can that stood next to his desk, but then, halfway through the editing process as he laughed at his and Niall’s antics again, he could feel his breakfast of almond milk overnight oats with frozen strawberries come back up.

He ran to the bathroom, not even bothering to switch on the light as he hurried to the toilet, sinking to his knees and emptying his stomach. His breakfast had tasted  _ so much better _ the first time. Happiness was in the small things though, so he considered himself lucky that he’d gone to bed the night before with his hair pulled up in a bun, he didn’t even want to think about getting puke in his hair, let alone having to wash it out.

He didn’t know how long he had been sitting there, his cheek leaning against the cool porcelain of the toilet bowl in hopes the nausea wouldn’t come back, when Louis stomped into the bathroom, flicking on the light and blinking confusedly when he saw Harry on the floor. 

“Harry? Are you okay?” he asked, taking three long strides to sink to his knees in front of his boyfriend.

“I think I am now,” he replied weakly, the nausea gone for now but still feeling weak and hungry again.

“What happened?”

“Just felt sick while I was on the computer, editing my video for Monday, probably a stomach bug, I’ve heard about one going around from customers at the bakery.”

“Hmmm. Could be,” Louis mused, trying not to get his hopes up, because Harry was probably right. What were the chances they were pregnant already? “Do you want to shower love? I could make us some toast afterwards, something that won’t sit too heavy in your stomach.”

Harry nodded his consent, letting Louis help him up and get his boxers and ratty T-shirt off before stepping under the hot spray. He let Louis wash his hair with his favourite Lush-shampoo and moaned when Louis’ thumb brushed his nipple as he rubbed body wash over Harry’s torso. 

It was honestly embarrassing what could get him hard these days, Louis only had to look at him and he was ready to go. He was still a bit scared that the nausea would come back, so he just bit his lip and stifled all moans that threatened to come out while Louis took care of him. He even managed to only get half hard and Louis was kind enough not to comment on it.

 

***

  
  


It wasn’t that pregnancy hadn’t crossed his mind, but since he hadn’t been nauseous again after that one Saturday, he believed it had been just a stomach bug. It was 4 weeks ago now, and it wasn’t that he had really expected to get pregnant so soon, but he was still disappointed about it. Not that he had taken a test, he deemed it unnecessary to do so because he had no symptoms. Except for the fact that he was a bit tired, but that was no wonder with the amount of sex they had lately, his libido was still sky high and he had to pee more often. He really didn’t want to turn into one of those people who bought a million pregnancy tests for every little thing they thought they felt, so he just waited until he felt pregnant. Gemma had always told him he would know and right now he didn’t know anything.

  
  


Monday had Harry busy setting up for the 7 second challenge that had been suggested by his followers. The camera was set up in their bedroom and Harry sat on their bed with crossed legs, pulling up the app on his phone and already scrolling through a couple of challenges to get a feel for what he was in for. 

Once pressed record, he quickly said hi and explained the purpose of today’s video, starting off with the first challenge immediately. “Pretend to ride a unicorn,” the app stated, so he got up and made a show of it, feeling kind of ridiculous but it probably wasn’t any more ridiculous than the time Niall had made him play Charades with him for a video. A couple of challenges followed and he was getting tired and bored of it a bit, so he explained he would do just one more before wrapping up, clicking the button one last time.

“Take a pregnancy test. Go out to buy one first if you don’t have any.” 

Harry hesitated. He could easily edit it out, no one would know and it wasn’t a big deal. It was just… he wasn’t ready to see a negative test as a confirmation, not when Louis wasn’t home. Then again, in the past six years he had never shied away of a challenge, and this wasn’t bad enough to warrant being the first time, he thought. So he went to grab his wallet, switched off the camera and ran out to the pharmacist around the corner. 

It wasn’t even five minutes later when he returned. Louis wasn’t home yet, so he pressed the record button again, angling the camera so that it would register his head as he took the test but not anything below his belt. He left it on while he waited the five minutes it took for the test to show the result, planning to speed it up when he edited his video. 

 

“Okay, so the five minutes are over, let’s see the result,” he told the camera, adding some drama to his voice and movements. “Aaaaaaaaaand,” he announced, picking up the test to see. “I’m pregnant,” it came quickly and dryly. He was too shocked to say or do anything else, just stood there staring at the plastic stick in his hands for about ten minutes, which is how Louis found him when he came home. 

 

“Harry? God, here you are, you had me worried when you didn’t answer when I called for you. Are you alright?” Louis rambled. “Harry?” he inquired again. “What’s wrong baby?”

Harry started shaking, his fingers barely grasping the plastic stick as he looked up at Louis, finally acknowledging his presence. 

“Baby? Babe you look pale, what’s wrong? Are you not feeling well? Should I call the doctor? Or maybe we should go to A&E immediately. What is it babe, where are you hurting?” Louis walked quickly until he was right in front of Harry, already checking to see if he had any bruises or if there was any blood present.

“Lou, look,” Harry finally stammered, voice hoarse. His fingers still trembled as he handed the test over to Louis, shock still visible on his face.

“What love, what is it?” Louis asked, taking the white plastic from him and looking at it. His jaw dropped, eyes widened and he stared at Harry in disbelief. “Are… Is this? Are you pregnant?”

“I- I think so, yes. It looks like it,” Harry confirmed, still shaky. 

Louis then noticed the red light on the camera blinking curiously at him. “Uhm, love, why are you filming this? This isn’t some kind of sick joke, is it? Because it ain’t funny. Like, at all.”

“What?” Harry asked confusedly. “Oh! Oh, no, no. No joke, I promise!” he scrambled. “I was filming that 7 second challenge video I told you about the other day, and uhm, one of the challenges was to take a pregnancy test. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do it because I was sure it would be negative anyway but uhm, well. It’s not?”

 

***

 

“What do we do now?” Louis asked, handing Harry the glass of water he’d requested once they’d moved from the bathroom to their living room couch.

“I don’t know. Call the doctor? Or a midwife? Maybe both?” Harry replied, unsure how this usually went. They’d talked about almost everything concerning pregnancy and babies over the last couple of weeks, but they hadn’t thought about that part, apparently.

“We could call my mum,” Louis suggested, knowing she’d know what to do next since she was a midwife herself.

“I don’t know, Lou,” Harry worried his bottom lip. “We’d have to tell my mum as well, and for all we know it’s still super early in the pregnancy, who knows what goes wrong? I don’t think I want anyone to know yet. Maybe the test is faulty, even.”

Louis paused. “Wait, that happens?” His eyes widened when Harry nodded, explaining the box said it was less than 1% but it still happened. “I’ll be right back!” he yelled, already in the hall pulling on his shoes and out the door before Harry could protest. 

 

Harry giggled when Louis came back, two plastic bags filled with different boxes holding multiple varieties of the same thing: pregnancy tests. There must’ve been at least 30 of them, and they’d probably cost a fortune. They agreed it was a bit silly, but Harry still drank the water Louis poured him, waiting impatiently until he had to pee. 

 

There were more giggles when Louis brought in the camera again, filming all 36 pregnancy tests saying the same thing; Harry was pregnant, somewhere between 6 and 12 weeks, if the ridiculously expensive digital ClearBlue test was correct. 

 

***

 

Louis was nervous all throughout his meetings on Tuesday. He was scratching his beard, playing with his fringe, checking his phone every two minutes and he could tell his co-workers were getting annoyed with him. It was silly though, because he  _ knew _ Harry would only call for a doctor’s appointment on his lunch break which was still at least two hours away, but he couldn’t help it. He was also scared that something would go wrong, because suddenly that had become a possibility or that the tests had lied. 

“Louis, are you alright?” Tina asked as they took a break from their meeting. “You look a bit… distracted this morning.”

Louis felt himself flush in front of his boss. “Uhm, yeah, sorry, I’m okay, I’ll try to focus from now on,” he grimaced, letting out a relieved breath when Tina nodded and stalked off to talk to someone else. He really needed to keep himself together, this meeting was important and he needed this job. Especially if Harry really was pregnant. Which. Holy shit. They were going to have a baby. He was going to be a dad. 

He checked the clock at the opposite wall, finding he had 5 more minutes to spare before the meeting would start again. Feeling himself starting to hyperventilate, he ran to the bathroom on the other side of the floor, hiding in a stall as he tried to calm his breathing. 

“Zayn?” he muttered into the phone pressed into his ear. 

“Yeah, sorry to interrupt. I just… I need to tell someone, okay? Don’t scream, don’t do anything stupid and most of all don’t tell anyone yet, it has to be a secret at least until we know for sure but…”

“What? Yeah I’m supposed to be in that meeting and I’m going back in a sec, it just overwhelmed me a bit and I need to let it out. Zayn, Harry’s pregnant. We’re having a baby. I’m going to be a dad.”

“I gotta go now though, back to the meeting or Tina’s going to kill me.”

He quickly hung up without giving Zayn any time to react to the news, stepped out to wash his hands and speed walked back to the meeting room, looking as professional as he could. His dark blue suit probably helped, though he imagined that the frantic look in his eyes really didn’t.

  
  


_ Appointment at the Portland hospital next Friday at 1pm with Dr Wilson. Liam said she’s good.  _

He got Harry’s message on his way to the Starbucks around the corner, planning to get a sandwich for lunch.

_ You told Liam?????? _

He typed back, getting a reply from Harry within the minute.

_ Yes. How was I supposed to know what doctor to pick? Do you have any idea how many there are in London? Besides, you don’t get to whine about me telling Liam when you called Zayn to tell him. _

His jaw dropped. Fucking Zayn, he explicitly said he couldn’t tell anyone. He was about to type a reply or maybe call Harry because that might be easier, even if Harry wasn’t allowed to have his phone while he was working, when the next message appeared.

_ He called to congratulate us. It’s fine Lou, I get it. See you at home later. I love you. xx _

Another message.

_ /We/ love you. _

 

If the baristas at Starbucks looked at him strangely because of the face splitting grin on his face, then so be it. He couldn’t be blamed for being excited that his boyfriend carried their child.

  
  


****

 

The weather was extraordinarily lovely for late October in London, so Harry and Louis decided to walk to the hospital instead of taking the tube. Ever since they’d found out about the pregnancy, Harry had started to get a bit more symptoms, as if he’d been repressing them before. He got nauseous whenever his stomach was empty, so he always carried dried fruits or nuts in his pocket as well as some crackers and a bottle of water, he was tired beyond belief and it seemed like he had to pee every five minutes. They’d already stopped at public restrooms five times now but they were finally almost there. Their hands were swinging between them, permanent smiles etched on their face in expectation of their first appointment. 

 

While the hospital was busy and bustling with people, adults and children alike, doctor Wilson’s waiting room was quiet and had a nice atmosphere. The radio was on in the background, paintings hung on the wall and various magazines were strewn on the coffee tables in the middle of the room. After telling the secretary they’d arrived, they sat down on the simple black chairs, Harry soon begging off to find the bathroom  _ again _ . 

Louis was leafing through a pregnancy magazine, seemingly immersed in the “growth and development of the embryo and foetus.” It was a two page spread, comparing the growing embryo and foetus to different fruits.

Harry smiled as he leaned in to see more clearly, and let out a quiet laugh when Louis mentioned their baby would be somewhere between a sweet pea and an olive, if the test was correct. They’d been counting before, and even if they’d gotten pregnant right away, they couldn’t be further along than 8 to 9 weeks unless the condom had broken without them knowing.

 

“Harry Styles?” a voice came from the desk. Louis quickly put the magazine down again and took Harry’s hand, insisting on helping him up even if Harry could perfectly get up by himself. He had rolled his eyes the first few times, but then concluded that it was just Louis being sweet and overprotective, so he went along with it.

“Hello, I’m doctor Wilson, please call me Meg. Which one of you is Harry?” she asked, shaking their hands before she took them to her office.

“Okay, Harry, Louis, take a seat. I’m going to listen to you and ask a couple of questions first, then we’re going to do an ultrasound to see how far along you really are. You had a positive pregnancy test at home, right?”

Harry confirmed it, explaining how they only started trying at the end of August so it came as a bit of a surprise to be pregnant already, Louis beaming next to him.

Meg took notes of everything he said, asking a few questions here and there before she put down her pen and recapitulated their entire story. When they both confirmed she’d understood them correctly, she took out some sort of wheel-chart, turning it around and noting something down again.

“Alright, so according to your story, you could be 11 weeks pregnant at the most now.”

“Oh!” Louis exclaimed. “Isn’t it 9 weeks since we started trying?”

“Correct Louis, but weirdly enough, we start counting a pregnancy from two weeks prior to conception, which kind of makes sense when dealing with female pregnancies since you have their period to base yourself off, but in male pregnancies it’s not very logical. Obstetricians around the world still decided to use the same system though, to not complicate it any further.”

“Oh, okay,” Louis nodded his understanding.

“If you are anything between 6 and 11 weeks, we should be able to see at least something on the ultrasound, embryos older than 8 weeks should have a heartbeat as well. How about we just take a look and find out instead of speculating?”

Harry was told to lie down on the table after taking off his pants, legs spread slightly.

 

For the first time since they’d arrived at the hospital, he got nervous. What if the ultrasound showed nothing? Or even worse, what if it showed there was something wrong with their baby? Meg told him to relax as she lubed up the echo probe, but it was easier said than done. He cramped up entirely, making it impossible to get the probe inside. 

“Take your time, Harry,” Meg consoled him. “I get that you’re nervous, and I wouldn’t want to hurt you as it might not be the last time you’re having this exam.”

Louis took his hand, squeezing his fingers gently in comfort. Harry slowly breathed in and out, feeling his muscles relax even further when he locked eyes with Louis, focusing on his sweet smile.

It turned out he hadn’t even noticed when Meg slid the probe inside, only feeling it when she moved it around to get a clear view.

“Well done, let’s take a look at what we’ve got here,” she told him, squinting her eyes at the screen.

Harry didn’t really see much else than black with a little bit of white, but he heard Meg mutter something as she pressed a few buttons and moved around a bit more to get a clearer picture. 

“There you go.”

Harry looked back from Louis’ face to the screen and gasped. He’d expected to see nothing but a blob, something like a raspberry or a shrimp, but not this. On the screen, he could clearly make out a baby with a rather large head, but there were also arms and legs and it was moving around, and he could even see a beating heart in the middle of it’s chest.

He didn’t even realise that he was crying until Louis wiped a tear from his cheek with his sleeve. When looking up at his boyfriend, he saw he had teary eyes himself, though it seemed like the smile on his face wouldn’t go away anytime soon. 

Meg froze the screen for a bit, measuring and printing some stuff while both men couldn’t stop staring at their baby. It was so beautiful!

“Alright, gentlemen, it looks like you two got very lucky, according to the measurements, you’re exactly 10 weeks and 3 days along, which sets your due date at May 19th, give or take a couple of days. This also means that we’ll be able to do the next sonogram through your stomach, Harry, which might be a comforting idea,” she smiled. “You can get dressed again so we can discuss the rest of it in a more comfortable position.”

 

On their way home, they were both still dumbfounded at the idea of having conceived on the very first day they tried. Harry felt the ultrasound picture burning in his pocket and Louis couldn’t stop thumbing his own copy in his wallet. Meg had told them she’d see them again for the 12 weeks visit and asked if they preferred to have a midwife from her practice for further follow up. If everything went well, they’d only see Meg a couple of times since the midwife would be able to handle most things herself. Or well, in their case, himself, as they’d been introduced to Tom on their way out, the midwife who’d see them at 16 weeks for their first appointment. 

 

“I can’t believe it,” Harry shook his head as Louis unlocked the door to their flat. “I’m so happy and yet it feels like we’ve missed so much because we didn’t know I was pregnant.”

Louis smiled, flung his keys in the bowl next to the front door and hung his coat before he approached Harry, putting his hand on his still flat stomach. “I’m sure our Little Lime will forgive us for that,” he whispered. “How about we make the most of it now that we know though? I was thinking maybe we could document the pregnancy on video? Like a diary?”

Harry’s face lit up. “Yes! I’d love that! And like, we could also vlog about it, but obviously not everything would go online, some things would be just for the three of us.”

Louis grinned, biting his lip. “I love the sound of that, ‘the three of us’,” he told Harry, stomach already filled with elation as they went to get the camera and set it up in their bedroom.

 

“Hi love!” Harry started the video. His hands were unconsciously placed atop his stomach as he sat with his legs crossed on their bed. “So, after seeing 36 positive pregnancy tests last week, we went to see the doctor today, and we finally met you!”

“Right now, you have a giant head, but we could see you move your arms and legs and it looks like you’ve inherited my inability to sit still,” Louis added smiling. “According to the magazine we read in the waiting room, you are now the size of a lime, so for now your nickname will be Little Lime.”

“You’re still our secret now, but tomorrow and Sunday your dad and I are going to visit our parents and tell them you’re going to join us in May,” Harry explained. “You’ll be the first grandchild for Jay and Dan but I’m sure my parents will be super excited as well.”

“We’re going to try and make a little video like this every week, but at least every time something exciting happens, like a doctor’s appointment or a check up with Tom, our midwife,” Louis said. “So we’ll see you again in two weeks at the latest, when we see Meg again for our twelve week ultrasound, I can’t wait to see how much you’ll have changed. Bye for now, little lime!”

“We love you,” Harry shouted, waving at the camera as Louis crawled off the bed to shut the camera down.

 

Even though it was Friday, Harry had thought and worked ahead and made sure he already had a vlog about a gluten-free apple crumble ready to upload, so all that was left was prepare dinner before both men could nestle on the couch for the rest of the evening. 

 

****

 

As expected, they had to pull over three times for a toilet break on the way to Louis’ family on Saturday. Also as expected, Louis didn’t even let Harry get out of the car and to the toilets by himself. Where he normally wouldn’t have bothered to come along, ever since they’d found out about the pregnancy he had turned into an overprotective boyfriend. Even worse since they’d actually seen their baby. 

“Lou, it’s only 10 feet to the bathroom, I really think I can handle walking there by myself,” Harry protested the third time. Their car was parked next to the shop at a gas station and Harry could see the toilet sign from where he stood next to the car. He  _ knew _ Louis was being sweet and he did it because he cared about them, but right now it was also bloody annoying. He just had to pee (again) and he was perfectly capable of doing so without a chaperone.

“It’s not that I don’t think you can’t handle it love, I just want to be there for you,” Louis provided, small smile on his lips and Harry couldn’t even bring himself to be annoyed anymore.

“Fine, but at least don’t stand in front of the door this time? Go buy some sweets instead, in fact, if you’re at it, get me a bag of that car shaped licorice, will you? Been craving it for days,” Harry pouted, knowing Louis wouldn’t be able to say no now.

“Harry, you know licorice is a bad idea for pregnant people, heightens your blood pressure,” Louis tried to protest but he already knew it was a lost case. Harry exaggerated his pout a bit further and that was all it took for Louis to get inside the shop with a roll of his eyes and buy the licorice and a bottle of ginger ale since that seemed to help with Harry’s nausea.

God help him though if Harry’s cravings evolved further with the pregnancy, Louis had almost puked last week when he’d found him eating chocolate cake with nachos, cheese and peppers included. 

 

Soon enough they were back on the road for another twenty minutes and soon after Louis felt wonderfully overwhelmed by the company and enthusiasm of his family. Six siblings was a lot, and he had often hated it when he was younger and wanted some peace and quiet for a bit, but now he simply loved it. It always turned coming home into a small party and living an hour away from them had really strengthened their bond. 

 

Needless to say both him and Harry were pulled into hugs and got kisses all over their face once they brought their news, only Louis’ mum waiting in her seat until the madhouse had calmed down again before she approached her sons, as she always called them. The others had already ran off towards the couch, discussing who would be the best auntie (Ernie was a happy and lucky bloke, being the only uncle on the Tomlinson side of the family) and probably some other things that warranted a lot of noise. Dan had simply patted their shoulder and wished them congrats before following to make sure no one was getting hurt, but Jay took her time.

 

“I’m so happy for you boys,” she whispered, leaning in to hug Harry close. “How are you feeling? Are you sick often? Not too tired? Oh and isn’t work too much of a hassle? When I was pregnant with Lottie I couldn’t stand the smell of bread, imagine if that happened to you!” she fired off her questions and worries without even giving Harry time to answer before the next one came. 

“I’m alright, thank you. Nauseous sometimes, but haven’t been really sick apart from one time in the very beginning. Very tired though, but I try to get a nap in before Lou comes home from work and that gets me through the evening okay. And work is fine, I am a bit sensitive for smells, but I try not to take the bus when it’s busy and that helps a lot. Although Louis freaks out about me cycling through London all the time,” he replied when finally given a chance. 

“Hey!” Louis protested. “I am worried about you and Little Lime, okay? You can’t blame me for that. Traffic in London is mad,” he grumbled, placated a bit when Harry wrapped his arm around his shoulder and pulled him close.

“I know Boo, I mostly think it’s cute, even if you being overprotective gets a bit annoying every now and then.”

Louis stuck out his bottom lip but couldn’t stop his smile when his mum drew him in for a hug, whispering into his ear how she knew he was going to be the best dad ever. It took a mum to know your doubts, and well, after seeing two fathers fail and leave, he had always thought he hadn’t had much of an example on how to be a good dad. Harry’s parents had had a divorce as well, but he’d known his stepfather since he was little and him and Harry loved each other to dead. 

 

Louis got a bit teary eyed when they left late that evening, receiving another hug from everyone before they got in the car, and Harry having to show off his non-existent bump and beaming when Louis had to fend off eager hands. “Lottie, stop fondling my boyfriend’s belly. There’s no baby to be felt yet so hands off!” he had yelled, slapping away his sister’s hand. 

Harry had simply chuckled, more amused than anything else and waved at everyone before he got in the car, allowing Louis to slam the door behind him. 

 

****

 

“Lou?” Harry asked, biting his lip.

They had only left the Tomlinson’s house fifteen minutes before, and had about half an hour to go before arriving at Harry’s parents. 

“You need to pee, don’t you?” Louis asked amusedly, keeping his eyes on the road because it had gotten dark and rainy in the last couple of minutes.

“Sorry?” Harry grimaced.

Louis chuckled. “It’s fine love, I’ll see if I can pull over somewhere.”

 

A small service station came just before Harry was about to beg to just pull over on the hard shoulder because he  _ really _ needed to pee, and for once he didn’t protest when Louis got out to fetch their umbrella to keep them dry on the way inside. Another bag of licorice was bought and they were back on the road ten minutes later.

 

An hour later, they were sat around Anne and Robin’s kitchen table, waiting for the Skype call to Gemma to connect. After getting Harry’s message that they were visiting home, she’d wanted to come over as well but Leyla had gotten sick and she hadn’t wanted to fly with an ill toddler so Skype had to do. 

 

“Oh my god, you’re pregnant!” she yelled as soon as she confirmed she could hear and see them all. “You are, aren’t you? I mean, it’s not that you’re fat or anything, but I just... I can tell? It’s like you’re glowing or something.”

 

If he wasn’t before, Harry was definitely glowing now as he let Anne and Robin hug and congratulate him and then Louis. They talked some more about the pregnancy and when he was due, Gemma promising she would make sure she’d be home for the baby to be born, the two experienced women handing out tips for nausea and other unpleasant pregnancy side effects before they all decided to go to bed. Even if they could sleep in the next morning, Harry felt dead on his feet already and they had a long drive home ahead the next day. He didn’t even want to think about getting up at 4am on Monday.

 

Sunday was quiet, the four of them had brunch together and Harry and Robin went to the golf course for an hour or so to play a short game. Louis managed to ask Robin only three times to take good care of his boys, still convinced they were having a son.

Louis spent his time with Anne drinking tea and talking about the baby, and the best ways to support Harry throughout his pregnancy, loading up the car when he received Harry’s text to tell him they were on their way back. 

Harry fell asleep as soon as they were on the highway and where Louis would’ve complained normally about having to drive for almost three hours without someone to talk to, he found that he didn’t mind. He just threw Harry a proud look every now and then, knowing that his boy was growing an entire human inside of him. 

 

****

 

The twelve week ultrasound went well, all measurements showed that, as far as an ultrasound could tell, they were to expect a healthy baby. Meg also told them the risk for a miscarriage dropped dramatically once the twelve week threshold was taken, so they decided to vlog together, announcing their pregnancy to the world. Harry had already struggled a bit with his normal vlogs. He had planned a skateboarding challenge last week, but he couldn’t exactly do that while pregnant, and he felt guilty (and nauseous because of the sugar overload, but mostly guilty) about making unhealthy comfort food for his Friday vlogs.

Once they both posted the vlogs on their channels, the congratulatory messages kept streaming in, completely blocking out the less pleasant messages telling them they were perverts and their child would be corrupted from birth. 

 

Harry noticed he was less tired by week 14 and was relieved to find that his sanitary stops decreased in frequency. It made things a lot easier. Unfortunately, what he got in exchange was constant nausea if he didn’t remember to keep his stomach from getting empty, so he tried to make sure to always have crackers with him to solve that problem. 

He couldn’t really complain though, all in all he felt great and people kept telling him he was glowing. The only thing he didn’t like at all was the fact that he wasn’t showing yet.

 

Well, that and Louis’ overprotectiveness. Of course, Harry  _ knew _ he was being sweet and worried about his boyfriend and baby but that didn’t mean he liked how Louis wouldn’t allow him outside on his own when it was dark outside, or how he kept trying to convince Harry to walk instead of taking his bike or even worse, let Louis drive him everywhere. In London, which equals nightmare. 

Especially because that meant Louis had been driving him to work at the bakery for a week now, making them both grumpy because Louis and getting up at 4am didn’t really go well and Harry and Louis’ morning grumpiness wasn’t a good match either. 

So when Louis appeared in their kitchen on Monday morning, grunting out something that supposedly meant good morning, Harry lost it.

 

“Oh come on, are you really going to keep this up for three more months?” he seethed, effectively waking Louis up thoroughly.

“Yes?” 

“Louis, please! You hate getting up this early, it’s making you constantly grumpy and tired. The only moments you’re not being grumpy is when we vlog about the baby progress. I can get to work on my own, you know? I’ve been cycling in London for six years now without ever having an accident, I’m pretty confident that I can manage another three months.” He was trying to stay calm, but it was quickly getting too much. Hormones didn’t really help, he supposed.

 

“I… God, Harry, I’m just worried about you! I can’t handle the idea of something happening to you on normal days, let alone now. You’re carrying our child!” Louis sounded somewhere between desperate and angry but Harry couldn’t bear listening to him.

 

“That doesn’t mean you have to escort me to the bathroom when we’re out for lunch! Or drive me to work every day at 5am. Or check up on me seven times before my lunch break. I am capable of taking care of myself, Louis, and of our baby.  _ Please _ , give me some space.”

 

“I know you are capable of doing that, it’s just… It’s the only thing I  _ can  _ do, Harry. You get to grow our baby, you get to feel them first, you have to give birth. I just… I feel so useless!”

 

“Fuck,” Harry muttered, only now realising how Louis was feeling. A quick look on the clock taught him he really hadn’t enough time left to discuss this now, but he did give Louis a quick hug. “Love, I promise you’re not useless, and I promise we’ll talk about this tonight, yeah? I’ll cook something nice and we’ll talk over dinner. Now please, please go back to bed for two more hours and let me ride my bike to work? It’s been such a hassle taking the bus home.”

“Yeah, okay,” Louis nodded into his shoulder, obviously having to bite back tears. It made Harry feel really guilty for his outburst, but there really wasn’t anything he could do about it if he wanted to make it to work on time. He did press a kiss to Louis’ lips before grabbing his jacket and his keys and dashing downstairs to get his bike from the basement.

 

***

 

“Goodbye mrs. Jones, enjoys those tarts,” Harry told his last customer for the day, not even waiting until she was outside before he started closing up. Normally the bakery would stay open for a couple more hours, but Sarah had called in sick and their boss had decided they’d close once Harry’s shift was done. That meant he had to clean and count the till though, so he was looking up against some overtime today. When the bell chimed again, he rolled his eyes and muttered about customers being unable to read the closed-sign on the door. “I’m sorry, we’re closing up early today,” he started as he threw some leftover rolls into a big bag for the homeless shelter, turning around before finishing his sentence. “Lou?”

“Hi!” Louis waved sheepishly. “I uhm, I took a half day? Thought maybe we could go to the zoo together? It’s nice outside, and I know you love going.”

Harry couldn’t help smiling at the proposition. “Only if we’re having take out Thai afterwards,” he bargained, though Louis agreed within two seconds. “Just let me finish up here. You can grab whatever’s left for lunch though, if you didn’t have any. The rest is going to the shelter anyway since the bakery’s not open tomorrow.”

Louis pushed himself up onto the counter, grabbing a croissant because it looked delicious even if he’d actually had lunch already. It took Harry only ten more minutes before he was finished and ready to go, the bag for the homeless shelter left at the back door where one of their volunteers would pick it up later. 

 

While the zoo was only a few blocks away, Harry didn’t feel like walking and by some kind of miracle he managed to convince Louis to sit on the back of his bike. He was kind of pale upon arrival though, even if Harry had been slower and a bit more careful than he usually was. 

“This really didn’t help to convince you I can cycle to work, did it?” he asked Louis as he bent over to lock his bike to the rack.

“It’s… it’s fine. I can see you’re used to it.” Louis answered, forcing a small smile.

“Come on, let’s get inside, walk and talk while we watch cute animals,” Harry offered, putting his arm around his boyfriend’s shoulder in a comforting gesture.

 

It took two hours and a lot of talking, sometimes bordering on fighting, but by the time they exited the zoo, they felt like they understood each other a bit better. Harry assured Louis that he wasn’t useless, that he appreciated the little gestures like a foot massage or bringing home his favourite snacks, and Louis could see how he was being a bit suffocating out of worry. 

  
  


****

 

“We’re halfway there!” Louis cheered once they’d set up the camera in their bedroom. “We’ve just come back from our visit with Tom, our midwife and the baby seems perfectly fine. Next week we get to see them on an ultrasound again and I’m really excited about that!”

Harry sat grinning next to him, his hands splayed over his now very visible bump, his shirt stretched over it. “The most exciting thing that happened this week though, was that Louis felt Lime kick for the very first time. I’ve been feeling her move about for three weeks or so now, it started with little flutters and then soft kicks, but three days ago, Louis’ hand was on my stomach and she made sure to kick right into it.”

“Harry, please stop referring to Lime as if he’s a girl, thank you,” Louis teased. “We’ll be finding out the gender next week as well,” he clarified, “but we’re not sure if we’ll share it with you yet. Might be nice to keep some element of surprise.”

They continued talking for a bit longer and finally ended their vlog with the usual picture of Harry standing against the wall, showing off his bump. They planned to use it later to make a timelapse video out of it. 

 

“What are you cooking this week?” Louis asked as he took the camera to plug it into their computer.

“Avocado chocolate mousse,” Harry replied. “Been craving chocolate mousse all week and at least this one’s kind of healthy so I can eat some without feeling too guilty.”

“Hey,” Louis chided. “You’ve heard Tom earlier. Your weight gain is rather low, so you’re allowed to eat some chocolate mousse if you want it.”

“I know,” Harry whined. “Still feel guilty about feeding Lime too much refined sugar and unhealthy fats though.”

“You’re such a freak.” Louis rolled his eyes but couldn’t help smiling all the same. “My freak though, and I love you and you’ll win the best dad award hands down.”

“I will, won’t I?” Harry grinned, leaning in for a kiss before sauntering down the hall to call his mum.

 

****

 

“I can’t believe I was right the entire time!” Louis teased as they walked out of the hospital hand in hand. They had just seen Meg for their structural ultrasound, and apart from finding out that Lime was perfectly healthy, it was also revealed that Lime was very much a boy. Which was why Louis was acting all smug right now.

“I can’t believe it either,” Harry sulked. “I really thought we were having a girl!”

“Hey you, cheer up, it just means I get to pick what we’re watching on telly tonight. You’ll fall asleep thirty minutes in anyway.”

“And that I won’t be able to call the baby Roxanne,” Harry continued pouting.

“Hey, love, are you really upset about it?” Louis asked quietly, pulling Harry along down the stairs of the tube station.

“No. Yes. A little bit maybe. I mean, I’m glad we’re having a healthy boy, of course. It’s just a bit of an adjustment in my mind.”

“Okay, I get that, I think. I’d probably feel the same if Lime would’ve been a girl,” Louis nodded. He pulled Harry closer to his side while they were waiting on the platform. “How about we start thinking about names over dinner? We have plenty of girl’s names, but only a couple for a boy.”

Harry cheered up a bit at the idea. “Yes, that sounds like a great idea,” he nodded, smiling at the thought of tiny hands and feet on their squiggly little baby. 

 

Finding a good name for a boy turned out to be a challenge. They both always found a reason to shoot down the other’s suggestion. When Louis suggested Max, Harry replied it reminded him of a dog. Harry suggested Mason, Louis said he wasn’t about to name his son after a jar. It went on for an entire week, until they decided to just make a list for themselves and not talk about it again until the next ultrasound at 28 weeks.

 

****

 

“Ah!” Louis woke up with a gasp, disoriented and still terribly sleepy as he blinked into the dark room. It took him a second to realise why he had woken up in the middle of the night, until he heard a slurping noise from underneath the blanket and registered Harry’s hot mouth around his cock. His very hard cock.

“Harry,” he whined, craning his neck to look at his alarm clock. Fuck. “Why are you blowing me at 3am?” 

Harry pulled off with another slurp, wrestling with the sheets for a bit until he emerged from underneath. Louis could hardly see him, but he could tell that he wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and then bit his lip. “I uhm, I woke up and really, really wanted you. And tomorrow’s Saturday so I thought it would be okay?” he said, sounding less sure of himself suddenly. “Like, an early birthday present?”

 

He honestly sounded close to tears all of a sudden, and Louis cursed himself for even questioning it. And cursed those damned pregnancy hormones, Harry’s mood swings were terrible these days. “Hey, hey, it’s alright, love,” he soothed, placing a hand on Harry’s cheek. “Sorry I reacted that way, I was a bit startled at being woken up, alright?” 

Harry only whimpered in reply, curling in on himself.

“Hey love, you can get all the birthday presents you want, okay? Come on, lie down for a bit, your back must be sore. How long have you been down there?”

 

He pulled Harry down with him, turning to his side and cradling his boy in his arms. It took a couple of minutes before he felt his muscles relax a bit, giving in to Louis’ silent invitation to cuddle closer. Louis let his hand drift over Harry’s warm skin, sweat cooling on top of it. He was always warm nowadays, and keeping their thick duvet on and the heating off at night was the best compromise they’d been able to make. He smiled softly as Harry started to squirm at Louis’ fingers tickling his side, his erection starting to press harder into Louis’ hip. 

“What do you want babe?” Louis whispered, pressing soft kisses into Harry’s neck and shoulder, teeth nibbling and tongue soothing the bites right after. 

“Hmmm,” Harry moaned quietly. “You. Inside. Soon.”

Louis chuckled at his boy’s eloquence, not his best feature in more coherent states and completely nonexistent when aroused. “You sure baby? Aren’t you still sore from last night?” It wasn’t like he didn’t know by now that in this stage of his pregnancy, Harry was pretty much ready to go at all times, but he also knew that he tended to be more sensitive than he usually was and hurting him was the last thing Louis wanted. 

 

“No, ‘s fine, I promise. Been trying to finger myself before I woke you up but I can’t reach properly anymore because Lime is in the way and I feel bad for hating him a little for it.” Harry whined, breathless moans slipping between his words whenever he rocked his cock against Louis’ hip in just the right way. 

“Shhh, okay love, hold on, let me help you out,” Louis told him, reaching under Harry’s pillow where their bottle of lube had made residence lately. 

 

While he could imagine that the angle had been downright uncomfortable, Harry’s earlier tries had been successful in at least that it had loosened him up. He was still slick with last night’s lube, and the added moist of Louis’ slicked up fingers helped his finger move in and out easily. Harry was panting harshly into his neck, already worked up before Louis had started and it wasn’t getting any better now. 

“Fuck Lou, fuck, more, please, more,” he mumbled incoherently, seeking friction by pushing his erection against Louis’ thigh. 

Louis shifted a bit, finding a more comfortable angle with Harry’s belly being slightly in the way for his arm to reach properly and ducked down to capture his lips in a kiss as he let a second finger slip in aside the first one. 

“Oh! Oh, Lou, fuck, yes!” Harry crooned, rocking back on Louis’ fingers and whining frustratedly because he couldn’t turn on his stomach. While he wasn’t exactly afraid of crushing the baby after Tom had given them a very extensive explanation when Harry had shyly asked him about sex during pregnancy, it wasn’t comfortable to lay on his stomach anymore and he didn’t like that one bit. 

Louis added another finger, scissoring them and opening Harry up as much as necessary and as fast as he could so he could finally give him what he wanted. 

“How do you want it?” Louis panted, getting more than a little bit affected by their ministrations.

“Wanna- wanna see you, but you on top wasn’t really comfortable last week. Fuck. Fuck. Can I- Can I ride you? Will you help me?”

“Sure love, come on, move over,” Louis vowed, pulling his fingers out and feeling his own dick twitch at the needy noise Harry made at being left empty. He didn’t even want to think about the way Harry’s hole would be clenching around thin air, for once being happy that he couldn’t see. 

 

He smiled at his boyfriend as Harry flicked on the light on his nightstand and helped him kneel over his thighs, shuffling forward until he was lined up over Louis’ crotch.

“Do you want a condom, love? Saves you the shower later on.”

“No!” Harry almost shouted, making Louis giggle and Harry blush because of his own eagerness. He leaned forward, catching Louis’ lips in a searing kiss before he whispered hotly that he wanted to feel Louis’ sperm drip out of him later on. 

Louis’ cock twitched against Harry’s arse, and judging by the way he smirked at Louis, he’d felt it perfectly. “Good to know I’m not the only one who’s so eager,” Harry winked, reaching behind him as good as he could to line up over Louis’ dick and sink down on top of it. 

“Oh, fuck, Harry, damn it,” Louis cursed, already feeling overwhelmed by the sensation of fucking Harry bare. He had never minded using a condom, they still did most of the time because it saved a lot of hassle, but fucking Harry without one was just a feeling nothing could compare to.

 

“God, Lou, you feel so good, ungggh,” Harry moaned as he sunk further down until his bum was fitted snugly against Louis’ pelvis. He took a moment to adjust before rising back on his knees and sinking down again, setting a slow but thorough rhythm that was sure to wreck them both, especially as he tilted his hips every time he moved upwards. He could feel Louis’ head brush against his prostate with every thrust and threw his head back in extasy.

“You’re so pretty, love,” Louis breathed, hand reaching up to caress Harry’s flushed skin from his shoulders down his chest and over his bump. “So damn pretty, it’s unreal.”

Harry smiled, moving his hands from Louis’ shoulders to the underside of his belly for more support as he felt his thighs starting to shake. 

Louis noticed he was getting tired, and spurred on by Harry’s moan about being close, started fucking upwards in earnest, speeding up and canting his hips in that way he knew would drive Harry crazy. 

“Oh! Oh! Ooooooh,” was all Harry could bring out. He’d stopped moving completely now, just let Louis fuck into him as he felt white hot heat spread from his pelvis to the tips of his toes and fingers, ripping him apart as he came. He shuddered through his orgasm, clenching down on Louis’ cock as he fell forward, grateful that Louis helped holding him up so he wouldn’t crush his stomach. 

Once he’d come down from his climax, he grimaced at Louis’ erection still nestled inside him. “Sore, Lou, ‘t hurts,” he mumbled, trying to rise on his knees to get it to slip out. 

He groaned as he was left empty, shuffling over to lay down next to his boyfriend. He suckled his earlobe and kissed along his jaw, batting Louis’ hand away when he reached down to pull himself off. Louis mewled in disdain when Harry didn’t replace it with his own, but was quickly quitened when Harry turned around and pulled his chest against Harry’s back. “Fuck my thighs, babe,” he whispered, closing his eyes when he felt Louis’ hips twitch on their own accord. “Come on, hurry up!” he spurred him on, surprising himself when he felt his own dick twitch at the idea. 

He spread his legs to allow Louis to coat them with a liberal amount of lube and Harry felt positively filthy now, hole still loose, lube all over his thighs only to be replaced by Louis’ come in a couple of minutes. Soon enough, Louis allowed him to close his legs, pressing his dick between them as Harry forced them together as hard as he could.

“Oh! Harry, Hazza, love, you’re so good for me,” Louis groaned as he sped up his thrusts, already feeling awfully close after fucking into Harry earlier. Harry loved the feeling of Louis’s dick sliding between his thighs, loved how he could alter the feeling by clenching or unclenching his muscles while Louis did the hard work, falling further apart with every thrust. It was only when Louis’ hand slipped from his stomach to his dick that Harry realised he was hard again. Louis started tugging him off in time with his thrusts, panting into Harry’s neck. 

“I-Oh fuck Harry, you’re so damn good at this, it should be a crime!” he brought out, his thrusts turning sloppy and the slide becoming a little dry as his climax neared. “I love you babe, I love you so much!” he almost yelled before he froze, muscles spasming as come pulsed out of his dick, covering Harry’s thighs and seeping out onto the mattress. 

Harry tipped over the edge seconds later, a few meagre drops of come all that was left, body going pliant under Louis’ caressing hands. 

 

“Wanna shower?” Louis asked after a couple of minutes, their breathing finally having returned to its normal pace.

“Nooooooo,” Harry whined, but he let Louis convince him anyway, knowing he would find the stickiness between his legs annoying and yuck instead of hot and filthy in the morning. He made it quick though, returning to their bedroom just as Louis finished changing the sheets. 

 

“Come on love, sleep,” he muttered as he tugged Harry into bed next to him, letting him be the little spoon as usual. “Happy birthday, love,” he added with a smile before closing his eyes and drifting off until the following morning.

 

****

 

Once past the 24 weeks, Harry had a lot of time on his hands. He was home from work, and while it gave him a lot of time for house hunting and cooking and cleaning and preparing their flat for the arrival of their baby, he also got bored a lot. 

The house hunting wasn’t going very well, so they’d decided to make room for a make-shift nursery in their bedroom which was thankfully rather large for a flat in London. They reasoned it would make it easier during the nights as well, but it meant that there was not really any painting or furnishing to do. Jay had given them a crib and a changing table she didn’t need anymore now that the youngest twins were in kindergarten and that was really all that fitted. 

They’d picked out some wall stickers and Zayn had agreed to paint the furniture in a bright blue with little anchors and steering wheels over the weekend when they’d planned to visit Harry’s family. The stickers of a ship and a compass were already up on the walls and as Harry sat down on their bed to look at it, he felt happy yet useless, not being able to prepare any further. 

Sometimes one of their friends would offer to go shopping for the baby, but he couldn’t keep doing that, either their budget or their space would run out soon enough. 

 

He was 4 weeks into his pregnancy leave now, their 28 weeks ultrasound scheduled for the day after. Harry spent the morning lazing about, sleeping in as well as he could with a baby kicking up a storm inside his stomach and cleaning out their bathroom cabinets. He already knew that Louis would tease him about it that evening. He’d say it was cute how he’d started nesting, and well… he probably was right. 

His stomach was growing every day now though, and it was starting to get in his way a bit when he had to reach down, and his back was starting to ache. Luckily, Louis was rather skilled in back- and foot rubs. Skilled enough to vlog about it even. It was kind of cute, the way that Louis had picked up vlogging more often again to talk about taking care of a pregnant partner. It had become his way to be more involved with the pregnancy and Harry didn’t complain, especially when he got massages, home cooked meals, special treats and relaxing days at the spa or just at home out of it. 

 

He knew Louis would be home late tonight as he took some time off for the ultrasound, but he was still excited about dinner. They’d agreed they’d discuss their list of names, and while Harry was very happy with his own list, even if it only consisted of five names, he was curious to see Louis’. 

Harry had just wrapped up his vlog for the day after, a healthy take on chocolate chip cookies (chocolate had turned out to be his new craving) when Louis stormed into their front door. “Harreh! I’m home! This motherfucking bitch of a day is finally over!” 

Harry could hear him kick off his shoes, letting them land in the corner instead of on the shoes rack, of course, and stomp through the flat in search of his boyfriend. “Ah! Here you are,” he smiled, visibly relaxing as he leaned in to kiss Harry hello. “Hmmm, tastes good,” was what came out of his mouth around a bite of cookie that he just nicked of the counter. 

“That was supposed to be dessert, Tomlinson,” Harry scolded playfully, but he couldn’t help grinning when Louis batted his eyelashes at him. “Go and wash up, you stink of office and dinner is ready,” he added, kicking Louis’ ass as well as he could manage with his bump. 

  
  


“David, Kevin, Jamie… Louis, why does it feel like I am looking at a list of your favourite football players?”

“Uhm,” Louis hesitated, stuffing his mouth with another bite of mash. “Because you are?”

“Are you seriously suggesting we name our son after a footballer you like?” Harry questioned, glaring across the kitchen table.

“I like their names too! I didn’t just write down the names of all Manchester United players, Jamie Vardy plays with Leicester even!”

“ _ I _ refuse to name my kid after a football player, Louis.”

“Yes, well, I don’t like your names either! I can’t even pronounce half of them,” Louis retorted, sticking his tongue out. 

Harry rolled his eyes, silently counting to ten to calm his temper. He didn’t want to fight over this, but his raging hormones combined with Louis’ childish behaviour made for an explosive cocktail. 

“Shall we just… look through the book again, then?” he offered after a short while, silence only having been filled with Louis’ fork scraping the last bits of mash from his plate. 

“Yeah, okay,” Louis nodded, gathering their plates and running the sink so he could do the dishes before joining Harry in the living room with the plate of cookies Harry’d made.

 

“Zacharia?” Harry offered when Louis sat down on the couch, drying his moist hands on his jeans, laughing when he pulled a face. “Okay, not Zacharia then.”

“Eden?” Louis offered, taking the book from Harry and starting to flip through it as Harry frowned and shook his head. “I love how you marked and colour coded the names you liked in here,” he smiled, looking through a couple of pages that had at least five different colours all over them. “Lucas? I kinda like that one.”

Harry hummed, biting his lip in contemplation. “Or Christopher? We could go with Chris for short.”

“Charlie?”

“Like it for a girl,” Harry replied.

“Yeah, I like it better as a girl’s name too,” Louis pondered. “Kenneth?”

“No, don’t like that anymore, it was marked blue, wasn’t it?” he leaned over to check. “Yeah, I wasn’t very sure of that the first time.” 

 

They went on like that until neither of them could keep their eyes open, shooting names back and forth for hours on end, up until Louis suggested they went to bed as their ultrasound was planned early the next day. 

 

****

 

“I think I like Lucas best,” Harry said, licking his spoon clean of his ice cream. The ultrasound had shown them a little baby boy playing hide and seek behind his hand, doing absolutely perfect and Louis had suggested they’d celebrate by going out for ice cream to celebrate. 

“Yeah? I like that one too. It has a nice ring to it, Lucas Styles.”

“What do you mean, Styles? Aren’t we calling him Tomlinson?” Harry asked, taken aback.

“Oh. Oh, I didn’t even stop to think about that, really. You want our kids to have my name?”

“Well, yes. I get to carry them, you should be allowed to give them your name, I think. Or do you want them to be called Styles? I mean, I’d understand if you did, I just thought you’d like to pass your name along.”

“No, yeah, I- yeah, I like that,” Louis smiled, eyes brimming with unshed tears all of a sudden. “Lucas Tomlinson, yeah, I like that too.”

Harry smiled back, grabbing Louis’ hand across the table and giving it a squeeze. “So, Lime will now officially become Lucas?”

“I don’t think I’m gonna stop calling him Lime anytime soon though,” Louis chuckled, picking up his spoon to steal a bite of Harry’s ice cream before he could stop him. 

  
  


****

 

At almost 39 weeks, Harry felt like a whale, and according to himself, he looked like one too. He waddled instead of walking, and every time he had a bit of an ache or hissed at a particularly heavy kick, Louis panicked. He had to physically force Louis out the door every morning to go to work and got at least ten text messages throughout the day to check up on him. 

 

Tom had checked the day before, and even though he was at two centimeters dilation, it could still take days or even weeks before Lime came into the world, so Harry tried to relax as much as possible and rest up since everyone around him told him he had to sleep now before it was too late. Sleeping was hard though, with Lime moving around his stomach all the bloody time like he was trying to break out and the Braxton-Hicks Contractions that had been bothering him for weeks on end now. 

He was just taking his morning-nap after making another video for Lucas’ video diary when he was woken up by another series of contractions, his stomach cramping up entirely, making him breathe heavily to withstand the pain. It felt heavier than before, but he had already alarmed Louis twice before, so he told himself not to overreact and deal with it. 

After a little while, the pain subsided again and he decided to take a shower to ease his back a little, moaning softly as the hot water cascaded down his skin. 

“Oh!” he shouted, another sharp pain shooting through his stomach that was soothed a little by the hot water, but he still had to breathe through it and that was a bit different from the earlier episodes. 

Once the pain was gone again, he got out of the shower and dried off, looking through his phone to find the contraction timing app he’d downloaded a couple of weeks before. 

Five contractions later, sixty to ninety seconds long and about eight minutes apart, the app told him he was probably in labour. 

“Oh shit.” he cursed, taken aback with the realisation that this was it. In a couple of hours, they would get to meet their son, his stomach would be empty and he wouldn’t be feeling him kick. He got strangely emotional at that, smiling a bit when Lime decided to comfort him by kicking hard against the hand resting on his stomach. 

“Right, let’s call your dad, yeah?” he asked, getting another kick as if he thought that was indeed a good idea. 

  
  


Louis probably broke seventeen laws on the way home, but he made it in fifteen minutes, arriving together with Tom. They found Harry in the kitchen, whipping up a key lime pie and a double chocolate zucchini bread to keep himself busy between contractions. Louis had to admit it was kind of funny, racing home to find his boyfriend baking naked from the waist down, only a long T-shirt and an apron covering him. A contraction hit right when he started explaining exactly  _ why _ he was baking, and he leant over, arms braced on the counter to breathe through it.

_ Beautiful,  _ was all Louis could think when he saw him like that. Hair pulled up in a messy ponytail and face a bit blotchy and sweaty, yet he was the prettiest thing Louis had ever witnessed. 

 

Once the bread was in the oven and the key lime pie in the fridge, the contractions had gotten closer together and harder to breathe through. Harry demanding Louis to rub his lower back through them as he groaned at their worst point. He allowed Tom to examine him again, all of them rather surprised that he was at 8 centimeters already. 

“Okay, uhm, if you really want to have this baby at the hospital, we have to leave  _ now _ .” Tom told them. 

“What’s the alternative?” Louis asked, afraid that the London traffic at rush hour would prevent them from getting there on time and he really didn’t want Harry to give birth in their cramped car. 

“I call one of my colleagues and we do it here. She should be here in fifteen minutes, normally.”

Louis glanced at Harry and nodded when he saw his face. “Okay, yeah, let’s do it here, then,” he confirmed, listening intently as Tom started listing off things he needed to grab in preparation. 

 

When Louis came back into the living room ten minutes later, arms full with a basin, a bucket and a pile of clean cloths, Harry was alternating between walking around and hanging of the doorways in search of a way to ease his pain. He dropped his stuff on the floor near Tom who was preparing things for labour and rushed to Harry’s side, rubbing his back softly as he asked if he could do anything for him.

 

“Get his baby out of me, for fuck’s sake! And remind me of this when we ever decide it’s a good idea to have another kid,” he groaned loudly as the contractions reached another peak, his stomach visibly hardening. “I want to go to the goddamn hospital, I want a fucking epidural,” he yelled once the pain had subsided a bit, interrupted by the bell announcing the second midwife’s arrival.

She smiled at Louis as he welcomed her at the door, following him to the living room where both Harry and Tom were to be found. “Hello love, I’m Ellie, I’ll be assisting Tom this afternoon, since I understood this is going a lot faster than everyone expected,” she introduced herself to Harry, apparently not bothered by the way he chose to ignore her completely as he was wrestling through another contraction. 

“Anything I can do for now?” she asked Tom once she’d gotten rid of her jacket and tied a blue paper apron in front of her. 

“Check the bed, maybe? I think we’ll have the most space to have the delivery in here, but he’ll want to shower and get to bed afterwards. Louis, could you tell Ellie where to find clean sheets and some towels, please?”

“Sure, yeah,” Louis nodded, glad he could be of use for someone. 

 

Once he had handed her a clean set of sheets and showed her the dryer to warm the towels in, he found himself in the living room again, feeling useless and mostly wishing he could take some of Harry’s pain. 

“Harry, are you pushing?” Ellie asked as she found her way back into the room after a good ten minutes. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Harry groaned. “‘S the only way the pain is bearable honestly.”

“Okay love, I know it sucks, but could you maybe lay down for a minute so Tom can check if you’re fully dilated? If you’re not, there’s no use in pushing and we could help find a way to help you bear the pain. If you are, that means your baby’s almost here, okay?”

Harry nodded reluctantly, remembering the things he read about the risks of pushing too soon, lying down on the couch so Tom could examine him once more.

“You’re doing perfect, Harry, you’re fully dilated and the membranes are bulging. You can push when you feel the need to.” He hadn’t even finished his sentence before another contraction took over and Harry pushed with all his might. “Okay, yes, perfect. You’re pushing like a pro, the baby’s really moving with every push.” Tom told him. “You can move around again if you want to.”

Harry had another fifteen minutes of hanging off furniture as he pushed with every contraction, pushing his bottom back to create as much room as possible for the baby to pass, until his legs started to shake from exhaustion.

“I- I- Can I sit? Like, my legs are starting to hurt so much but lying wasn’t comfortable either.”

“Of course. Could we maybe suggest something? Louis, if you could sit down on the armchair, maybe, legs open, yes, like that,” Ellie instructed once they both nodded. “Harry, sit on his lap and prop your feet up on these blocks, they’re perfect for it.” Harry sat down and shuffled downwards a little until he was comfortable and Ellie and Tom had a good vision of what was happening down under. 

“Are you okay like this?” Tom asked, smiling when they both nodded.

Louis grabbed Harry’s hands, allowing him to squeeze whenever a contraction hit him and finally feeling useful today. 

“I can see the head, Harry, it’s still slipping back once you stop pushing, but it’s there. We’re almost there,” Tom encouraged Harry, grabbing his hand to feel for himself with his next push. 

Ellie smiled at their awe, procuring a mirror from somewhere to show both Harry and Louis what was happening. 

Soon enough, Harry was mewling because it hurt so much, but then, after pushing two more times, the head was born, and Tom only just managed to catch the baby as it slipped out completely, the membranes still intact. 

“That brings luck,” Ellie commented while Tom freed their baby from it’s confines, catching the fluids on some cloth he had lying underneath. 

“It’s a boy,” he grinned up at them as he moved him around to hold him properly, Lucas having recovered enough from his quick entry into the world to start wailing loudly. 

Harry’s anger had left his body together with Lucas, and he could only smile at the little boy, reaching out to hold him and cuddle him close.

“Lou, Lou, he’s here,” he whispered tearfully. “He’s finally here.”

Louis reached around to see better, gently stroking the boy’s skin with one finger. “He is, yeah,” he choked out. 

“What’s his name?” Ellie asked gently as she helped Harry up from Louis lap, guiding him to the couch so he could lie down a bit. 

“Lucas,” Harry told her proudly. “Lucas Tomlinson.”

Louis sat down on the floor next to the couch, unable to keep his eyes off of his boyfriend and their son. Lucas had been bundled up in a towel and had stopped his shrieking once he was nestled against his father’s chest, seemingly sensing he was safe there. Ellie handed over a pair of scissors then, and Louis proudly went to cut the cord, too busy focusing on his new family to notice the placenta being born and taken care off by Tom and Ellie.  

 

Two hours later, the sun had gone down and Harry had showered. Their families were on their way to London, expecting to arrive late at night so they could visit the newest addition early the next morning. Louis still glowed with pride after signing the birth certificate, confirming that Lucas Tomlinson, born on May 11th at 8:16pm, was indeed his son as well as Harry’s. 

They’d had nine months time to prepare, but not even twenty years could’ve been long enough to prepare for this. For the love they both instantly felt, for how much of a rollercoaster the pregnancy but even more the actual birth had been. 

“Hiiii!” Harry waved from his bed, the red light on the camera meaning they were recording. “You’re only two hours old, but I couldn’t wait to share this with you. I could hardly believe it was you announcing your birth when I woke up with some cramps this morning, yet here you are. You apparently couldn’t wait to join us, because we didn’t even make it to the hospital and so you were born here, in our living room. It’s pretty special, if you think about it, and I’m already sorry that we’ll eventually have to move out of this flat when you get older.” 

“We just wanted to let you know that we love you so much already, and we can’t wait to see you grow up, Lucas. You’re no longer our Lime - though if I’m honest, I think the nickname might stick. You’re Lucas now, and that’s how we’ll introduce you to the world starting tomorrow. This has been an incredible journey, and I just wanted to say thanks, for joining our little family, and for making us fathers.”

“Please note for further reference that your dad is as much of a sap as I am,” Harry joked, leaning down to watch their son sleeping on his arm and pressing a gentle kiss to his nose. 

 

Once their families had visited the next day, they posted a short vlog on both their YouTube channels to announce Lucas’ arrival and being blown away by the storm of positive reactions they got from their followers. 

The time lapse video they made afterwards got even more likes and even though they didn’t really have the time to spare to actively vlog with a kid around, they did post a video of the three of them every now and then, and they definitely documented all milestones. 

Lucas crawling, Lucas starting to walk, Lucas talking, Lucas showing off his new room in their house in the suburbs, Lucas announcing he was about to be a big brother. 

And finally, almost three years after the video that introduced Lucas to the world, he introduced his little sister Charlie to thousands of cooing followers on his fathers’ joint YouTube channel. 


End file.
